Connection techniques currently used for securing printed circuit boards to supporting structures are prone to subject the board to damage. The most frequently used method of printed circuit board mounting is to provide holes in the board through which attachment screws extend. Using this method, the screw head or the washer interposed between the screw head and the board is prone to compress and sometimes penetrate the circuit board causing shorting of wire traces, power planes or both. Further, the screw threads are apt to dig into the walls defining the circuit board holes and can also cause shorting. Finally, the nut or other material adjacent the threaded opening in which the screw is received at the other side of the circuit board can compress into the back side of the circuit board and cause shorting as well. With ever smaller devices, printed circuit wires approaching one micron widths and increasing numbers of layers of circuitry, the above connection practice is progressively more likely to subject the circuit board to damage. The ‘keep out’ zones, associated with the mounting holes and which must be avoided by printed circuit wires, are not only more significant as printed circuit wire densities become greater, but also further aggravate design constraints if such ‘keep out’ zones must be increased in size to prevent mechanical damage. 
To avoid the adverse effects of mounting printed circuit boards using techniques associated with holes through the board, some boards are fabricated using enlarged ‘keep out’ zones around the mounting holes that extend radially substantially beyond both the screw head and washer used to attach the board. Although this effectively lessens possible damage by mechanical abrasion, compressive stress and torque induced during attachment, such practice  materially increases design constraints as the board real estate available for printed circuit wires is reduced. 